e60-545i

My 2004 545i is approaching its 4 years now and today I got "low battery" warning on I-drive telling me that there is heavy discharging. I first noticed that something was weird when upon locking the car, the alarm disengaged automatically while leaving the doors locked but fuel door unlocked. Also, I think that the adaptive transmission memory seemed to have cleared since the car held each gear for much longer period than before. This is the first time I have seen this warning. Since i-drive told me to drive for longer period, I took the car for a 25 minute drive. After that the warning has not returned.

Considering that I don't drive as much as before (I now only use my car twice a week for very short distances - 10 miles or so), my guess was that infrequent driving has caused high drain on the battery. On the other hand, perhaps the battery is too old that it needs to be replaced.

How long does a battery last? If it needs to be replaced, it is covered under extended warranty or extended maintenance?

Thank you in advance.

5er Sport

I just recently had the same problem since i also don't drive my car that much so I went to BMW and purchased a BMW Charger / Maintainer and never had this problem again.

Here is a link to one for sale on Ebay. ( Just to show you what it is )

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Genuine-BMW...sspagenameZWDVW

e60-545i

Thanks for the quick reply 5er sport (btw great looking car )

I didn't even know such device existed. From the pictures, it looks like it plugs directly into the battery itself. Does that mean we need to leave the hood open while it charges it?

With this device, it seems that I can solve the low battery problem. So most likely its not due to the faulty/old battery that is causing low battery warning?

5er Sport

Thanks!

Yes it connects to the battery and you have to leave your hood open but it charges fairly quickly ( I have my car inside the garage so i left it charging overnight )

I took the car to BMW to check the battery and they told me that the electrical circuit drained the battery since i don't use my car a lot ( 2004 and only 20.xxx on the odometer ) so in my case this was the perfect solution.

Rich

e60-545i

Sorry to bring this topic back up but it looks like the problem got worse.

I was considering to buy the battery charger as a fellow member suggested since I got low battery warning telling me to drive for longer period or use an external charger. The symbol shown on the i-drive was a yellow battery. So yesterday and today, I drove for about 30 minutes each time trying to recharge the battery for total of 30 miles or so.

But just now I started the car and I got a different warning light. It now shows a yellow car on a balance saying that there is an "increased discharge when the vehicle is stopped", advised me to turn of all non-essential devices and told me to have a BMW center check. Now this sounds like a bad battery since I thought a bad battery is when it can no longer hold the charge. Given my current situation, would you guys still advise me to buy the external battery charger? Or does it look like I need to replace the battery? I just want to figure out what is causing the problem before I pointless visit the dealer to have them tell me drive longer to charge the battery when the problem is in fact a defective battery thats not holding the charge.

Any thoughts on the issue will be appreciated.

jcp

If the battery is 4 years old, I would think it quite likely that it is at the end of it's life. The short infrequent trips have probably then pushed it over the edge. Last dead battery we had, on my wife's car, the breakdown service man stuck a meter on the battery and straight away was able to tell that it was worn out.